What is a local public service?
We have a new member of the team.
Say hello to Luke Piper.
Luke is our business analyst. He knows lots about sustainable development, data, IT and football. He knows less about local government. This is OK. The rest of us are recovering bureaucrats. Though the fact that we are recovering bureaucrats means that we throw jargon around with abandon.
It frustrates Luke a little so he sat us down to ask us to explain ourselves. He thought the answers might be sufficiently interesting to warrant sharing with you here.
Luke: What does public services mean?
Ben: Public services is a rather vague term. It certainly includes the public sector. So that’s central government, local government, police forces, all of the bits of the NHS, independent agencies (like the Environment Agency or SEPA), parliaments and devolved governments (of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and so on…
It *might* for some people include services to the public not delivered by the public sector (like nursing homes or buses outside of London).
Luke: Why are some public services not delivered by the public sector?
Ben: Politics, history and diversity.
Most people would regard public transport as a public service but it is, largely, delivered by private operators for political reasons. Many people believe that charities are better placed to deliver some types of public service (Hospice care, domestic violence support services for example). Many care homes deliver care to people who pay for it directly, an entirely commercial transaction. Is this a public service? Most people would say yes I think…
Luke: Is local government another word for a council?
Ben: Yes, -ish.
Local government is normally taken to refer to the principal councils (ie the ones that are not parish or community councils). Everyone in the UK is served by one or two layers of these (Wales, Scotland and NI have single layer councils, most people in England are served by single layer councils but lots of rural England is served by 2 layer councils (district councils and county councils)).
Annoyingly there are also parish councils (in England), community councils (in Wales). They occur almost exclusively in rural areas (though there are a FEW in urban areas). They aren’t usually what people mean by local government. English Parish Councils and Welsh Community Councils are the same, just called something different. Scotland also has Community Councils which are a little different. NI doesn’t have those sorts of things
There are also, in many places, Fire Authorities. These occur where fire and rescue services stretch over more than one county or single layer council. The councils appoint councillors to run the fire authority. This is not a council but it is local government. There are a few similar things (waste authority in Manchester, national park authorities).
Then we have some new forms of government at local level: Police and Crime Commissioners (England and Wales) and Metro Mayors (a few bits of England). Again not councils but, probably, local government.
Luke: What is the relationship between councils and other organisations?
Ben: Complex.
Councils are legally independent organisations but they operate on the basis of a lot of laws which oblige them to do some things, prevent them from doing other things and allow them (if they choose to) to do yet more things.
Typically these laws give different bits of central (or devolved) government influence over their decisions. Also central government may fund bits of local government and with this funding comes strings.
Councils may also inspect other bodies (usually at a local level) and may co-operate with them to deliver specific things. Councils may fund local bodies, and with the funding comes influence. Councils may have the right to appoint people onto the governing bodies of local organisations and many organisations, especially public services, have duties to co-operate with local government.
Luke: I vaguely remember seeing a network map of this somewhere?
Ben: You’re probably talking about this network diagram drawn by Phil Rumens. That shows a lot of complexity but remember he’s only really drawing the network as it relates to data and digital. The network that relates to education would be radically different, and again for homelessness, and again for food safety and so on…
He also wrote this guide to local government vs central government which you may find interesting.
Luke: What does local government/public services do?
Ben: Hundreds of things.
But broadly: education, social care of adults, social care (and protection) of children, roads, public transport, the whole planning system, environmental health, public health (more so in England), collecting (some) taxes, paying (some) benefits, running sports and leisure centres, libraries, archives, museums, tackling homelessness, offering housing or helping housing associations offer housing, boosting the economy
Luke: What does the typical structure of a council look like?
Ben: There really is considerable variation and, within limits, councils can arrange their staffing structures how they like.
They have to have a Head of Paid Service (Chief Exec), Section 151 Officer (Accountant) and Monitoring Officer (Lawyer).
Counties or Unitaries in England and Wales must have a Director of Children’s Services and in England a Director of Public Health.
These days most organisations will have a team responsible for communications, most councils (though probably not English District Councils) have a team responsible for stats/data. In GB county and unitary councils have a duty to produce needs assessments and that guarantees they will have some stats people to do that.
You might also be interested in the history of local government.
Luke: What are the main challenges in this space?
Ben: Cuts.
In 3 ways:
- how do councils deliver social care services with so little money?
- how do councils do the things that citizens care about (typically not social care) with so little money
- how do councils maintain balanced budgets (they have a legal duty to do this)
Luke: Staying politically neutral — why are there cuts?
Ben: It is hard to answer that in a politically neutral manner because this is a political decision.
Let me try…
Within the broad consensus of how we run our society and economy (to some degree a market economy, to some degree state intervention) and following the 2008 crash: successive governments believed that government spending was outstripping government income to too great a degree. To bridge the gap the government could increase taxes or reduce spending or both. Governments so far have chosen to reduce spending.
Once the government decided to reduce spending it has to decide where the reductions should fall, which clearly relies on political judgements. In England the government chose to protect the NHS and payments made to pensioners from cuts so the cuts had to fall harder elsewhere. In the devolved administrations their spending has, until recently, been tightly coupled to spending in England.
The costs of delivering public services tend to rise. So even though the NHS hasn’t had its budget cut, its cost have risen so it has still had to make cuts.
Government has also prevented local government from raising its own taxes rapidly to compensate from the reduction in central government spend. Why has it done this? The answer can only be given from a political perspective and you will need to buy me a cider to get me in the frame of mind to opine on that.
But there are political positions that would argue that we should have much less of a market economy and much more state intervention and the reverse. If you take those positions your view on the reason for and scale of cuts would be radically different again…
Luke: Where else can I go to find out more?
Ben: I admire your enthusiasm. Though I’m hoping you get that Google DataStudio dashboard finished first…
There are organisations representing local government in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are local government think tanks like Local Government Information Unit (they have a great podcast, Millennials love podcasts right?), New Local Government Network, the Centre for Public Scrutiny and Reform.
And for reading around the subject check out the Institute for Fiscal Studies, New Economics Foundation, the Open Data Institute, Nesta and OneTeamGov.
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I work at The Satori Lab.
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